el guapa

Arrived about six o'clock last night in BARTHELONA. Yes, that's how I spell it - so the Catalan accent is fully appreciated ( as it should be ! ) got some wicked shots of La Sangrada Familia? I think that's how you spell it. Guadi's big ass, old church that is still under construction. I tell you what, I wa slooking forward to it - but it's ten thousand times more amazing when you see it in person. You just can't imagine the amount of detail, dedication and foresight went into it.

It's so humid here, I tell you what. But we had a really great dinner last night provided by the hotel too. Turns out I am a huuuuge fan of gespacha. There is nothing better at the end of a boiling hot day than a huge bowl of cold tomato, cucumber, olive oil etc. soup. It's amazing. But this is where shit really starts to get good. My 6 lessons of Spanish paid off sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much. A few people have literally confused me for a local ( which goes great in taxis, they don't try to rip me off! ).

So last night I paid about 7 euros to see a flamenco show. It was only 15 minutes, and they looked constipated the entire time - but all in all it was a pretty cool way to pass half an hour. And in Barca? You need to find stuff to do to pass the time while waiting for the nightlife to spring into action. None of the nightclubs are even open before 2am. I ended up at this awesome place called the Porta De Olympia, which is the main nightclubbing spot in Barca. I tell you what, amazing nightlife over here. But we got there about 2am, this really nice guy Near from Perth and this great girl Becca from California.

The clubs here are very different to back home. Every nightclub has a group of strippers that just kind of, prance around on the bar. I nearly got a severed thumb from a stray 20 inch stiletto. Wouldn't that have been an embarrassing injury? I don't think it's intentional, but the clubs are super segregated too. There was one, Tamancas that was full of Asians, the next bar was an Australian Bar full of Americans and eventually I found a Roman themed one called Olympus that seemed packed with locals.

What a night.

First it was 2euro tequila shots, then free tequila shots because I met some guys that had a bar card so I got it for free ( ; Met a local and spent most of the night with him, Eban, and he did not speak one word of english. Not hello, goodbye, sorry, thank you etc. Not one word. So my Spanish has improved so much after jumping into the deep end and it was great! The funniest thing ever though, I was trying to compliment him. And the word for handsome in Spanish is El Guapo. But for some reason, I kept saying El Guapa. El Guapa is like, the feminine version - like pretty or beautiful. And he kept replying with El Guapo, so I thought he was complimenting me. SUPER LAUGHING when we eventually figured it out. Not kidding, I nearly fell over I was laughing so hard. However, didn't get back until 7am, and then had to get up so I could get some breakfast so I am running on no sleep at the moment.

Not really in a rush to go out and do stuff today, my feet really, really, really need a rest - especially because we're going to Niece tomorrow and they don't have sandy beaches, they have pebbly beaches. So I'm giving my feet and my body a break after last night and have just been re-filling my belly and chilling out by the pool in the gorgeous sun. Feeling so incredibly chilled and content. I don't want to leave! heheh.

Tonight we're all going as a group to find some cool tapas bar. That's the great thing about this tour really, there are littel groups sure, but as a whole, we try to do stuff all together as much as possible. There are some incredibly amazingly nice people on this tour - seriously.

Really in a great mood today, despite being incredibly hungover. Money-wise I'm doing really well, which is cool. I've only bought myself one thing for 20 euros! And it's really awesome and by far worth so much more, so I'm proud. I'm saving Camp Nou for when I come back, because the football tickets for Madrid and FC Barca are sold out already from members. Kind of upset, but I figure it's just not meant to be this time.

After all, Pique will be in Barca for a long time to come!

And on that note, I have some Spanish soap operas to watch in my air-conditioned hotel room while stuffing my face with bolognaise flavoured Lays. Life is fucking great.